Kindle Fire

According to Pew Research, tablet ownership among U.S. consumers nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent over the holiday season.

The Pew project conducted three surveys, one in mid-December and two at the beginning of 2012. The results show a marked increase in ownership of tablets, e-readers, and the hybrids that exist somewhere between those two categories.

Hit or miss rumor site Digitimes has reported that Apple may plan on introducing a low-end iPad 2 with a starting price of around $299 after the next-generation iPad hits the market.

Sources from Apple's supply chain have claimed that there will be two versions of the new iPad, one targeting the high-end segment and the other the mid-range. Digitimes Research believe the two new iPad models will both be equipped the A6 processor with high-end model coming with a high resolution panel (2048x1536) and the mid-tier model featuring the same grade of panel as iPad 2 (1024x768).

Our very own Seth Clifford, he of the iOS and mobile design podcasts, took a second look at how Amazon's Kindle Fire stacks up against Apple's iPad 2, now that the Fire has gotten its first, much-needed software update.

In a new survey conducted by ChangeWave, consumers polled over which tablet they'll be purchasing this holiday season showed heavy demand for the Apple iPad over competing Android tablets and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Apple continues to show enormous strength in the tablet market, where it’s enjoying the best quarter in its history, according to the survey. But while two-out-of-every-three future buyers plan on purchasing an Apple iPad (65%), for the first time since the launch of the original model, there is a double-digit contender for the number two spot. Better than one-in-five planned purchasers (22%) say they’ll buy a Kindle Fire.

According to Economic Daily News out of Taiwan, Apple has purportedly paired up with LG Display and AU Optronics for a new 7.85-inch iPad to be released in early 2012. The smaller iPad would supposedly carry the same 1024x768 resolution of the current iPad 2, making a higher DPI level and helping Apple compete with the recently-announced 7-inch Kindle Fire.

Amazon has announced their iPad competitor and as rumor had it, it's called the Kindle Fire. The biggest news is the price -- only $199 for a 14.6 ounce, 7-in IPS 1024x600 169dpi display. It's dual core, Wi-Fi only, and has only 8GB of storage (plus free Amazon cloud) but again -- $199.

Rumor has it word that Amazon's rumored 7-inch tablet will be known as the "Kindle Fire", and in addition to a forked version of Android software, it might also be using a reduced cost version of the BlackBerry PlayBook hardware.